Snellville Trash& Recycling Update

The Snellville City Council recently approved Advanced Disposal as the contractor to handle trash and recyclable pickup for city residents and businesses, beginning July 1st. Of the four companies submitting bids, Advanced was the lowest bidder that met city requirements, and was given a two-year contract.

For city residents, the biggest changes will be the name on the refuse carts and recycling bins, and new guidelines for acceptable recyclable items. Advanced Disposal will deliver new 65-gallon trash carts and 18-gallon recycling bins (the same sizes as those currently in use) prior to July 1st; 65-gallon recycling carts are available on request, at no additional charge. However, the existing carts and bins will be used throughout the month of June. On the last pick-up day of the month, the current trash hauler will collect the bins and carts when they pick up trash. The new carts and bins from Advanced Disposal should not be taken to the curb until after July 1st. (Advanced has subcontracted with Latham Home Sanitation to handle residential service.)

On occasions when a 65-gallon cart isn’t sufficient to hold the week’s trash, residents can still purchase the infamous blue bags, each of which holds approximately 33 gallons. And as is currently the situation, large bulky items will be hauled off if three bags are attached to each item. Blue bags are available at City Hall, Public Works, Kroger and Publix supermarkets.

The new recycling guidelines are not the result of the new contract, but because of changes within the recycling industry. The biggest change will be that glass will no longer be accepted in curbside recycling bins or carts. For a variety of reasons, the sorting facilities to which mixed recyclables are taken have reduced or eliminated the capability to separate glass from cardboard, plastic, newspapers, magazines and metal cans. It’s not just Snellville that will be eliminating glass as an acceptable curbside recyclable- virtually all cities will be following suit, if they haven’t already.

As with a host of other items, glass will still be accepted at the Snellville recycling center, which maintains separate bins for specific types of items, thereby eliminating the need for sorting. The recycling center also accepts cardboard, yard trimmings, steel and aluminum and a variety of items classified as “junk”.

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2 Comments

Good information, thank you! I like that plastics #3-#7 will be accepted. For people who may not know, those are the numbers inside the triangular shape on the bottom of most plastic items. Just look at the numbers.

Is Advanced Disposal the company Brett Harrell owns or did own? Dropping Robertson’s & going with the company we’ve most recently had was the first thing over which I’ve ever disagreed with Tom Witts…but I could understand why a less expensive contract with a company with new trucks would be attractive. It was worth a shot to see how they would do. The problem with the one person truck was, in my opinion, that there wasn’t a 2nd employee to make sure the person’s job was done well, and if pieces of trash blew down the street, there was nobody to do anything about it. Sure we have litterers too, but the amount of waste that ended up blowing around & eventually getting to our creeks & rivers was definitely increased.

Dave, please check out RecycleBank.org – it is free & educates people about recycling & people can earn reward points for recycling, that they can redeem for all kinds of great stuff – and this does NOT cost citizens, the city, or our hauler anything!

I think kids with parental guidance would especially get more interested in putting out recycling to earn rewards. It increases the amount of recycling!

Brett Harrell never owned Advanced Disposal. He worked for the company for a time but I don’t believe he does any more.

It was never Tom Witts’ idea to switch trash hauling companies. The city contracts with private companies to provide trash service. When a contract expires, it has to be put out for bid again and in most cases, the contract is awarded to the lowest bidder. (There are exceptions if it can be demonstrated that the low bidder can’t or is highly unlikely to be able to provide the required service level.) The entire Council votes on the awarding of the contract. Good idea bout recyclebank.org.